RobKirkpatrick.com

Tuesday, September 9, 1969

A black cat visited the Chicago Cubs dugout, and now the Cubs are wondering if it’s an omen for their 1969.

As Don Kessinger stepped into the batter’s box, a stray black cat in circled Glenn Beckert in the visitor’s on-deck circle, hissed at manager Leo Durocher, and then scampered back under the stands of Shea Stadium.

Are the Cubs jinxed?  Some people might say so, as Chicago’s division lead has now shrunk to just one-half game with the Mets 7-1 victory on Tuesday night. 

Ken Boswell got the scoring started with a two-run double in the bottom of the first inning. Two innings later, Art Shamsky was picked off by Fergie Jenkins but remained alive when Chicago’s Glenn Beckert botched the run down. Don Clendenon followed with a two-run shot to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.

New York starter Tom Seaver allowed the Cubs’s only run of the game on a Ron Santo single in the fourth. But the Mets added single runs in the fourth, fifth, and seventh to pull away. Art Shamsky hit a solo homer, and both Tommie Agee and Jerry Grote went 2 for 4.  Seaver went the distance in a masterful effort, giving up just five hits while striking out five.  His counterpart tallied nine strikeouts but proved very hittable, allowing ten hits and seven runs (two unearned) in seven innings of work.

With New York’s two-game series sweep of the Cubs, Chicago leaves town with the slimmest of leads in the division and actually one more loss on the season than the (for the moment) second-place Mets. Next up, the last-place Expos come to Shea for a three-game series, while the Cubs remain on the road and head to Philadelphia.

Can the New York Mets, baseball’s loveable losers for the past seven seasons, move into first place?  Tune in tomorrow to find out…

Mets 7, Cubs 1.  W: Seaver (21-7)  L: Jenkins (19-13)

***

                                              W    L    T   PCT    GB  
Chicago Cubs                    84   58    1  .592     -  
New York Mets                  82   57    0  .590   0.5  

Monday, September 8, 1969

Jerry Koosman answered Bill Hands’s knockdown pitches and the Mets stood up to the Cubs in the opener of their crucial two-game series at Shea.

Hands, looking to deliver a message to the pesky Mets, knocked down leadoff batter Tommie Agee not once but twice in the first inning. But Koosman responded by drilling Cubs leader Ron Santo to begin the second inning, and then the lefthander proceeded to strand Santo on first by striking out the next three batters.

In the bottom of the third, Agee got his own measure of revenge. With two outs and Bud Harrelson standing on first, Agee drove a Hands offering over the fence to give the home team a 2-0 lead.

Koosman faltered in the top of the sixth. He gave up a run by surrendering singles to Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, and Billy Williams to begin the inning, and then Ron Santo’s sacrifice fly tied the game.

But again, New York answered back. Agee led off the bottom of the inning with a double and came around to score on Wayne Garrett’s single.

Koosman hung tough from there. Chicago threatened in the eighth when Beckert and Williams opened the inning with consecutive singles, but then Koosman induced Santo to ground into a double play, short to second to first. Ernie Banks stepped in the box with the tying run 90 feet away, but Koosman retired him on strikes and then worked around a Randy Hundley single in the ninth by notching his eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth strikeouts of the game.

The Mets’ victory drew the team to within just 1.5 games of first, the closest they’ve been all season.

Mets 3, Cubs 2.  W: Koosman (13-9)  L: Hands (16-13)

***

NL EAST STANDINGS

                                             W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Chicago Cubs                    84   57    1  .596     -   653  519
New York Mets                  81   57    0  .587   1.5   548  490

Friday, September 6, 1969

Billy Williams had a monster day for the Cubs, going 4 for 4 with two home runs. Unfortunately for Chicago, Pirates starter Steve Blass no-hit the rest of the lineup as his team routed the Cubs. Blass himself provided the biggest punch in the Pittsburgh lineup, as he went 4 for 5, homered, and drove in three runs. Don Kessinger was the only Cubs player beside Williams to reach base – twice on walks.

Pirates 9, Cubs 2.  W: Blass (14-8)  L: Holtzman (16-9)

Tom Seaver won his 20th game of the season and Jerry Grote hit a two-run home in Game One against the Phillies at Shea. Seaver and Al Weis also notched RBIs.

Rick Wise outpitched Jim McAndrew in Game Two, striking out 11 Mets in 9 innings.

Mets 5, Phillies 1 (1).  W: Seaver (20-7)  L: Jackson (12-14)

Phillies 4, Mets 2 (2).  W: Wise (12-11)  L: McAndrew (6-6)

***

NL EAST STANDINGS

                                               W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Chicago Cubs                    84   54    1  .609     -   642  496
New York Mets                  78   57    0  .578   4.5   533  485

Wednesday, September 3, 1969

Jim Maloney two-hit the Chicago Cubs at Crosley Field today. Oscar Gamble was the only Cubs player to reach second base when he walked later advanced on  Don Kessinger’s single. Bill Hands pitched well but took the loss by giving up a two-run homer to Alex Johnson in the fourth inning.

Reds 2, Cubs 0.  W: Maloney (8-4)  L: Hands (16-12)

Trailing 4-0, the Mets rallied to tie the game on a pair of two-run homers from Tommie Agee and Don Clendenon off Claude Osteen in the eighth. But Jack DiLauro surrendered a double to Willie Davis that scored Maury Wills with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

Dodgers 5, Mets 4.  W: Mikkelsen (7-3)  L: DiLauro (1-4)

***

NL EAST STANDINGS

                                               W    L    T   PCT    GB   
Chicago Cubs                    84   53    1  .613     -  
New York Mets                  77   56    0  .579   5.0  

Tuesday, September 2, 1969

The Chicago Cubs completed one win and then won a complete game.

The June 15 game at Crosley Field between the Reds and Cubs had been suspended after 7 innings with the Cubs leading 5-4.  The game was resumed today in Cincinnati, and Ken Johnson kept things status quo by pitching two shutout innings. Paul Popvich’s home run and three RBI back in June proved to be the difference.

For the day’s originally scheduled game, Fergie Jenkins gave up two runs and struck out seven in nine full innings. Don Kessinger doubled and homered, and both Glenn Beckert and rookie Oscar Gamble had two hits and three RBI. Pete Rose was 3 for 4 for Cincinnati. The two official wins on the day increased Chicago’s division lead to five full games.

Cubs 6, Reds 5 (1).  W: Nye (3-5) L: Arrigo (2-6) SV: Johnson (2)

Cubs 8, Reds 2 (2).  W: Jenkins (19-11)  L: Cloninger (9-15)

The Mets built a lead against the host Dodgers thanks to two home runs by slugger Don Clendenon and three hits from Ken Boswell.  New York starter Gary Gentry lasted into the ninth, when Los Angeles mounted a comeback that fell one run short when Tug McGraw came on to strike out Willie Davis with men on first and third.

Mets 5, Dodgers 4.  W: Gentry (10-11)  L: Sutton (15-13)  SV: McGraw (10)

***

NL EAST STANDINGS

                                              W    L    T   PCT    GB  
Chicago Cubs                    84   52    1  .618     - 
New York Mets                  77   55    0  .583   5.0 

Saturday, August 30, 1969

The Cubs held on to take a second game of a weekend series in Atlanta. Handed a 3-0 lead, Chicago starter Dick Selma got just two outs and gave up two runs before Leo Durocher pulled him in favor of Ken Johnson. The veteran Johnson earned his first win of the season by going 5 1/3 before handing things over to Phil Regan. Don Kessinger and Billy Williams had two hits, one run, and one RBI apiece, and Ernie Banks struck a two-run homer, his 21st of the season.

Cubs 5, Braves 4.  W: Johnson (1-2)  L: Reed (13-9)  SV: Regan (15)

Don Clendenon hit a 10th-inning home run off Gaylord Perry and Tug McGraw finished off the game with two scoreless frames to put the Mets over the Giants.  Ken Boswell had three hits and scored twice for New York, who got 7 1/3 strong innings from starter Don Cardwell.

Mets 3, Giants 2.  W: McGraw (7-2)  L: Perry (16-11)

NL EAST                          W    L    T   PCT    GB   
Chicago Cubs                    81   52    1  .609     -  
New York Mets                   75   53    0  .586   3.5

Friday, August 29, 1969

Bill Hands outdueled Pat Jarvis in Atlanta to give the Cubs their second consecutive win. Don Kessinger went 3 for 4 and scored once, Ron Santo went 2 for 4, and Jim Hickman hit his 17th home run of the year.

Cubs 2, Braves 1.  W: Hands (16-11) L: Jarvis (10-9)

Gary Gentry got off to a rough start in San Francisco and gave up four runs in the first inning, including three on a home run by Bobby Bonds. His counterpart, Juan Marichal, dominated the Mets in yielding just four hits while striking out seven. Bobby Pfeil was 2 for 4 for New York.

Giants 5, Mets 0.  W: Marichal (16-9)  L: Gentry (9-11)

NL EAST                          W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Chicago Cubs                    80   52    1  .606     -   614  471
New York Mets                   74   53    0  .583   3.5   498  456

Monday, July 28, 1969

The Giants looked like they’d won this game with a run in the top of the 10th inning, but then the Cubs struck back for two in the bottom of the frame to send the Wrigley faithful home happy.

With the score tied 2-2 after nine, Willie Mays singled in Bobby Bonds for the go-ahead run. It could have been worse but Rich Nye came on and got Ken Henderson to ground into a bases-loaded double play, third to catcher to first, to end the inning.

Starter Juan Marichal, still going in the tenth inning, retired the first two Cubs batters and was just one out away from victory. But Willie Smith walked and then Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, and Billy Williams all singled to score the tying and winning runs.

Bill Hands had started for Chicago and gave up just 2 runs in 8 2/3 innings.

Cubs 4, Giants 3 (10 inn.)  W: Nye (2-4)  L: Marichal (13-6)

Monday, July 14, 1969

A three-game series touched off in Wrigley between baseball’s newest rivals, the Mets and Cubs. Tom Seaver, the clear leader among the New York pitching staff, squared off against Bill Hands, arguably the team’s best hurler this season, and both players lived up to their billing. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the sixth, when Don Kessinger reached on a bunt single, advanced to second on Glenn Beckert’s grounder, and scored on a two-out single by Billy Williams.

With two outs in the top of the ninth, J.C. Martin got his second hit of the game off Hands, but Phil Regan came on and got Don Clendenon on a lineout to second, prompting third baseman Ron Santo to jump in the air and click his heels together in celebration.

Cubs 1, Mets 0.  W: Hands (11-7)  L: Seaver (14-4)  SV: Regan (9)

Team Name                        W    L    T     %     GB  
Chicago Cubs                    57   34   1  .626     -  
New York Mets                   49   37    0  .570   5.5

Sunday, July 13, 1969

Ken Holtzman shut out the Phillies in the first game of a doubleheader, and Jim Colburn, making his Major League debut, picked up a victory while going 5 1/3 innings and allowing 3 runs. Don Kessinger was 2 for 5 with 2 RBI in the first and scored twice in the second.  Glenn Beckert was 3 for 4 and Ron Santo struck a 2-run shot in the first game.  Ernie Banks was the hitting star of the second game, going 2 for 3 with 4 RBI. Billy Williams scored twice in the nightcap, as well.

Cubs 6, Phillies 0 (1). W: Holtzman (11-5)  L: Fryman (8-6)

Cubs 6, Phillies 4 (2).  W: J. Colburn (1-0)  L: L. Palmer (0-1)  SV: Nye (2)

***

At Shea, Jerry Koosman recorded a complete-game win in the opening end of a doubleheader with the Expos. Cleon Jones, Art Shamsky and Ed Kranepool each went 2 for 3.

The second game was a wild affair, with starters Nolan Ryan and Howie Reed both getting touched for 6 runs in 3 1/3 inning and neither figuring in the decision. Tommie Agee hit a leadoff home run and then followed with a 3-run blast to cap a 5-run rally in the 4th inning. Agee also scored the go-ahead run in the 7th on Ron Swoboda’s single and the insurance run on Wayne Garrett’s single in the 8th. The Mets centerfielder finished the game with 3 hits, 4 runs scored, and 4 RBI in 4 at-bats.

Mets 4, Expos 3 (1).  W: Koosman (7-5) L: J. Robertson (2-7)

Mets 9, Expos 7 (2). W: Koonce (3-3)  L: McGinn (4-9)  SV: Taylor (7)

***

Team Name                        W    L    T    GB   
Chicago Cubs                    56   34    1    -  
New York Mets                   49   36    0   4.5